Alliance-Syndicate War
The Alliance-Syndicate War was a conflict between the two largest factions in the known galaxy, the Alliance and the Syndicate Worlds. The war lasted for approximately a century, and resulted in the deaths of millions of civilians, soldiers and prisoners of war. It was the most devastating conflict in human history. The Syndicate Worlds declared war when they attacked the Grendel system. Commander John Geary's famous last stand at the Battle of Grendel inspired the Alliance fleet to fight back with valor. It is unknown why the Syndicate started the war, although it has been suggested that they had an alliance with the enigma race, which the enigmas then went back on. Due to the Syndicate striking against worthless systems at the start of the war, the Alliance recovered from the original strikes, and began the counterstrike. This caused an almost century long stalemate. As the experienced officers were killed, inexperienced, incompetent officers took their place, often leading entire fleets to destruction. This led to a death spiral, with inexperienced commanders in charge of inexperienced ships and crews. The economies of both sides began to collapse. The situation worsened when the factions began to build hypernet gates in their systems, which allowed for faster travel between systems but were also highly unstable. After the war had been continuing for decades, a Syndic traitor provided the Alliance with a hypernet key, and Admiral Bloch led a risky attack on the Syndic Home System, Prime. On the way to Prime, Bloch found the comatose Commander Geary in an escape pod, and rescued him. The First Battle of Prime was a trap, however, and Bloch was captured and executed by CEO Shalin. Geary came to command the fleet, leading it back towards Alliance space. During the campaign, Geary dealt enough damage to the Syndicates to destroy the majority of their defense force. Geary defeated the final major Syndic force at Varandal. The Alliance fleet then returned to Prime, capturing it and forcing a Syndic surrender. At the Battle of Midway a few weeks later, the Alliance and the Syndics fought alongside one another against the Enigma Race. The Syndics later fell into civil war against themselves, with Midway declaring independence from the Ruling Council. History Tensions Tensions between the Alliance and the Syndicate Worlds were not particularly high before the Battle of Grendel. However, the two factions had two different ideals. The Alliance were a democracy, ruled by a group of elected officials, although there was quite a lot of corruption in the government. The Syndicate Worlds were a dictatorship, ruled over in a company-like manner, with the government made up of CEOs (a business term referring to the person in charge of a company's operations). Alliance intelligence believed that unhappiness in the Syndicate Worlds with the management was caused by the freedom that the Alliance offered being compared by citizens to the totalitarian organization of the Syndicate Worlds. To prevent their citizens from rebelling, the Syndics sought to turn the Alliance into enemies. Another factor was that the Syndics possibly had an alliance with the Enigma Race, who agreed to help the Syndics by attacking the heavily defended Alliance economic and military centers. This plan would have broken the Alliance before they could have responded, and would have caused the Alliance to lose ground. With a seemingly perfect military plan, the Syndic authorities started by sending a Syndic flotilla to capture the lightly-defended system of Grendel. Battle of Grendel Close with the enemy Commander Geary's last received orders at the Battle of Grendel The flotilla arrived in the Grendel system at the same time, coincidentally, as two courier ships being escorted by the heavy cruiser Merlon, commanded by Commander John Geary. The flotilla attacked the convoy. The two courier ships escaped, with Merlon covering their escape. Geary held the Syndics off for a long time, allowing the courier ships to escape, though he realized that the Merlon was too heavily damaged to escape. Geary slowly ordered more and more of the crew off, while still fighting the Syndic flotilla. Though heavily outnumbered and outgunned, Geary's fighting spirit and the loyalty of his crew meant that their attacks were bitterly damaging the Syndic ships. Geary continued to hold the Syndics off so that his crew could escape, until they had all evacuated. The Merlon lost her propulsion system, leading to her floating aimlessly in space, though she continued to fire on the Syndics. The life support systems also started failing, overloading and couldn't vent out the fumes of broken electronics and parts. Eventually, Geary decided to self-destruct the Merlon, in order to deal great damage to the flotilla. Geary managed to escape the Merlon onboard a damaged escape pod, which had had its communications and propulsion systems damaged. Because of this, neither the Syndics nor the Alliance realized that Geary had escaped and was actually in a coma in the escape pod. Eventually, Grendel became littered with so many damaged ships that Geary's escape pod was lost. First Strikes Due to the Enigma Race breaking their treaty with the Syndicate Worlds, many of the industrial and military centers that sat on the Alliance borders were not attacked, as the Syndics believed that the Enigmas would be attacking these areas. Instead, the Alliance were hit in many unimportant systems, and pushed back. However, because their important planets were safe, the Alliance were able to mobilize quickly, and began their counterstrike. These attacks on Syndic space were unsuccessful, as were the Syndic's attacks on Alliance space. The situation deteriorated into a stalemate. Stalemate For the next century, the two enemies were locked in a bitter stalemate. The war expanded, drawing the Callas Republic and the Rift Federation into the fight on the Alliance's side (the Republic and Federation believed their free way of life was threatened by the Syndic's belief in totalitarianism). The war sent the economy into a downward spiral, and ships became hastily and poorly constructed, increasing the number of deaths on both sides. Sailors were quickly promoted without regard for competence or ability, and the tactics descended into simple brawling, with little or no discipline. Promotions were given to those who could politically out maneuver their opponents, leading to backstabbing and loyalty purges in the fleets. Admirals in the Alliance navy would carry out espionage against their own officers. In many ways, the Alliance became very similar to the Totalitarianism that the Syndicates offered. Politicians were corrupt and indecisive, and tried desperately to micro-manage the fleet, leading to unhappiness on Alliance ships. Admirals began plotting mutinies and rebellion. In Syndicate space, things were very different. The war united the various classesSocial classes is a very prominent feature in dictatorships and even some democracies/monarchies, such as the UK. See the social class article on wikipedia. in the Syndicate Worlds, and discouraged ideas of rebellion. The government could continue to carry out acts of terror against their own people in secret. However, they, too, became desperate to end the war as the economic depression continued and millions of its citizens and military personnel were killed. Hypernet Gates 30 years after the Battle of Grendel, the Enigma Race provided both sides with a technology that could end the war: hypernet gates, incredibly powerful gates that allowed ships to travel between systems faster than the usual jump systems, which required ships to travel through every system to get to their destination. The hypernet gates allowed the Alliance and Syndics to move their resources extremely quickly. However, they were also extremely unstable and could not be turned off. Another undesired effect of the gates were that some systems, which could not afford their own gate, became unused and so were forced to shut down. This was particularly prominent in the Syndic's territory, with entire systems often abandoned because it was "economically advantageous". The hypernet gates refused to give any sides the advantage in the war. First Battle of Prime The First Battle of Prime was meant to be the final winning move in the war. The Alliance was supplied with a Syndicate hypernet key, which would allow them to travel to the Syndic Home System and defeat the Syndics. This battle was planned by the politically adept but incompetent Admiral Bloch. On the way, the fleet rescued Captain Geary, whose escape pod was now leaking power, alerting the fleet to its presence. The Battle was a trap. Bloch's fleet fought their way through the Syndic ambush, but were cut off from the hypernet key. Bloch was captured and executed, leaving Geary in charge of the fleet. He led them to escpae the system using the system jump point, which the Syndics had overlooked, believing Geary would attempt to escape using the hypernet gate. During the escape, the auxiliary Titan fell behind the rest of the fleet, and the Captain of Repulse, one of Geary's nephews, fell back to cover the fleet's escape. Repulse was destroyed. Return to Alliance Space Geary now led the fleet on a desperate return to Alliance space. During the retreat, the fleet won many decisive battles, such as the Battle of Sancere, where the Syndic construction yards were, and the Battle of Lakota, where the fleet destroyed the majority of the Syndic forces. By the time that the fleet had almost reached the Alliance borders, only one substantial Syndic force remained- the reserve flotilla, which had spent the war patrolling the Syndics border with the Enigma Race. In an act of desperation, the Syndics brought this flotilla back to stop Geary, though their orders changed when the system Kalixa was destroyed by a collapsing hypernet gate. The Syndics now headed to Varandal to destroy the Alliance hypernet gate there. On the way, they were ambushed at Atalia by an Alliance force attacking Atalia. The Battle of Atalia slowed down the Syndics, and as Geary's fleet arrived, they witnessed the Syndics leaving to Varandal. Geary, realizing that the Syndics were about to destroy the system, pursued them in his fastest ships, the battle cruisers. However, there were only twelve remaining battle cruisers, all of which were heavily damaged and low on fuel. Battle of Varandal Despite being outnumbered, outgunned and with inferior supplies, Geary knew that the only hope for the fleet was an attack on the Syndic flotilla. The battle cruisers arranged themselves into a simple line formation and attacked the Syndics. They had help from the battleships Dreadnaught and Dependable which defended the hypernet gate until the cruisers could arrive. Geary arranged his forces into a line, making a firing pass against the Syndics. During this engagement, the Furious, commanded by Geary's good friend Captain Cresida, was destroyed. The Syndics began another attack on the fleet, but at this point, the rest of the fleet, led by Captain Badaya, arrived, forcing the Syndics to flee. Second Battle of Prime Geary was promoted to fleet admiral, and led a second attack against Prime. However, with most of their fleet destroyed, the Syndics tried a new plan, attempting to detonate the hypernet gate to destroy the system and the fleet. When Geary worked this out and told the Syndic military and citizenship of the system, there was rebellion, and the Syndic Ruling Council were arrested. However, a force of Hunter Killers attempted to free the captive leaders, but Geary and his fleet managed to stop the plot. The new Syndic Ruling Council negotiated an end to the war with the treaty of Prime. Treaties Treaty of Prime The treaty of Prime brought an end to the war with no territorial changes. The only agreements were that the war would end and the Alliance fleet would attack the Enigma Race at Midway. Treaty of Midway After Midway declared independence from the rest of the Syndicate Worlds, CEO Iceni negotiated an agreement with Geary that he would not interfere in the rebellion if Iceni provided him with research into blocking signals sent to collapse the hypernet. The rebellion at Midway is dealt with in the new series by Jack Campbell, the Lost Stars. Aftermath After the war, the Syndicate Worlds began to collapse and fight amongst themselves in the Syndicate Civil war. The Syndics were suffering from a collapsing economy and rebellion from the lower classes, who were no longer united following the war. Meanwhile, the Alliance senate approved Fleet Admiral Geary's expedition into Enigma Race territory to establish communication with the Enigmas. The Callas Republic and the Rift Federation began demanding independence from the Alliance, and Co-President Rione was voted out of office because of her affiliation with the Alliance. References Category:Alliance-Syndicate War